Chris Mazzola of Bijou Properties | 7Seventy House in Hoboken | Mitigating Environmental Hazards
Courtesy of Bijou Properties
Mitigating Environmental Hazards
Today we will be speaking with Chris Mazzola, the Director of Development at Bijou Properties and a developer who focuses on residential anchored, mixed-use developments in New Jersey. He has been with the company for seven years and has shaped many of their major projects in the process, from acquisitions all the way to leasing. On today’s episode, we will hear more about the 7Seventy House, a new major mixed-use development in Hoboken, New Jersey, and dive into Chris’s personal experience working on this development. At a broader level, we will also touch-on the impact of climate change on urban real estate portfolios and how this has led to evident shifts in urban development projects.
How can built environments mitigate the effects of environmental hazards? The 7Seventy House has kept this question in mind while undergoing development, its nascent occurring on the heels of Hurricanes Henri and Ida. Chris shares with us how water management infrastructure along with municipal policies can address the broader issue of flooding for waterfront and riverfront cities across New Jersey and New York. Join us on this week’s episode as we speak to him about this topic, his personal journey working with Bijou Properties, and how the 7Seventy House is allowing tenants to experience Hoboken living like never before.
“We just knew that flooding would always be a lingering issues. So what we did was we said, okay, well, the best we can do is bring in engineers who know what they’re talking about, because I don’t know how to solve flooding issues. We worked with the city and North Hudson Sewage Authority to engineer a system which ultimately manifested itself in half a million underground detention system. So it’ll hold, you know, if there’s a heavy storm, whatever rain hits the surface, it’ll ultimately end up in this half a million gallon underground tank, and it’ll be held back until the storm lines have let out enough water. And it’s not what you can see. That’s one of the best benefits or best amenities of living in that building it’s what you can’t see. Everyone likes the parks and the gymnasium. That’s great. But when we had our first series of storms last summer, didn’t flood.”
Courtesy of Bijou Properties
About Chris Mazzola
Chris Mazzola is the Director of Development at Bijou Properties, which he has been with for the past seven years. Previously, he worked at JP Morgan and Brookfield Properties. Born in Long Island, eventually moving to Hoboken, he is passionate about introducing individuals to residential collections that allow tenants to experience Hoboken living. As the Director of Development for Bijou Properties, he oversees the development of multiple projects, including acquisitions, financing, design and construction, marketing, and leasing.
Courtesy of Bijou Properties
Episode Timestamps
4:03 – Why did you make the move into development and then why more specifically visual properties?
6:57 – Talk us through what the concept of ‘placemaking’ means for Bijou Properties.
11:55 – 7Seventy House located in Hoboken. Tell me about some of the unique aspects of that particular site.
21:25 – There's also 25,000 square feet of retail. What's the story there?
26:40 – I want to pivot a little bit towards the design and the planning process, and specifically all the care that your firm put into the water management and the mitigation. Could you talk our listeners through what that process was like? And what were the things that you included in that project to manage water issues that would be present in the west side of Hoboken?
29:42 – What if your neighbors didn't do anything for water mitigation? Would you just keep on drawing the water that they're throwing off? How do you prevent that from happening?
32:34 – What are some of the best water mitigation practices that you will continue implementing in your future projects?
Connect with Chris Mazzola:
About your host:
Atif Qadir is the Founder & CEO of Commonplace, a technology company making it easy for commercial real estate professionals to find and use the $100B of real estate incentives given out every year in the US.
His work has been covered by Technology Review, The Real Deal, Commercial Observer, and Propmodo. He’s also a frequent speaker on the future of buildings and cities on popular industry podcasts and at conferences, including this past year at the Commercial Observer National DEI Conference, Yale AREA Conference, Columbia Real Estate Symposium, Open Data Week NYC and Austin Design Week.
About Commonplace
Commonplace is a founding sponsor of American Building. It is a 100% minority-owned, real estate technology company founded in 2020 to make financing social impact development projects across the US easier. It is funded by venture capital investors Hometeam Ventures, Park West Asset Management, New York Ventures and Shadow Ventures.
About Michael Graves
The world-famous design firm Michael Graves is also a founding sponsor of American Building. Its namesake, the iconoclastic designer Michael Graves, FAIA was a fierce advocate for people-centric design. His work defines a generation of American architecture and includes the Portland Building, the Humana Building and the Denver Public Library. The 1st season of American Building was filmed live at The Warehouse, his historic home in Princeton, New Jersey:
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